Highly recommend you stay away from user 'snakeriverdance'. I paid $88.00 for a Kenner Death Star Space Station set with $30.00+ postage and packaging. The item arrived in Britain after a month but I got a letter from Parcelforce saying I had to pay £23.49 for it to go through customs! So I messaged the bloke on eBay and he said "I pay too much money to afford extra customs charges" ....I was stunned.... Absolutely fuming! So I had to pay the charges in the end, but only for now, as I've opened a case on eBay to try and get my money back. I just couldn't believe it... He never even said anything about extra charges in the description but why should I have to pay two lots of postage anyway? Just because he can't afford it?! Why is he in the business then?!

I do have my Death Star now and I love it, but you know... I wish it hadn't cost so much damn money!

Never mind now, was down to my own ignorance. It's HMRC's fault!

ouch, sorry you got stung by the charges Here's a previous thread about customs charges you might find interesting. Most times it seems random how they decide what has to go through a customs charge - I don't think it's really the sellers fault and often sellers will have a disclaimer on their page saying they're not responsible for charges. And if the seller marks the item down as a lower value and their package gets opened then they get busted. The UK customs business is a minefield unfortunately.

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t1855-i-guess-it-happens-to-the-best-of-us-god-dam-custom-charges?highlight=custom+charges

Why is this the seller's fault? It's your customs charges? If I shipped something to you I would have no idea what charges you would incur (let alone warn you about them) I've said it before- "I'm glad we don't have import tax here"

In Denmark we have import tax if the packet comes from outside EU. Just because EU is worried about loosing jobs in EU.

I just hate this stupid rule. I have contacted a danish member in EU about it. But I don't think they will change it.

But again who in EU would loose his job if I buy a Vintage piece of Star Wars in USA or Australia and not in a EU country :scratch:

Sorry mate, maybe I just don't understand what you are writing, but if I understand it correct then this is not the sellers fault. But EU.

But if you live in Uk and buy in USA you have to pay taxes if you buy for more than about $10 and that includes the cost for the mail. This is a EU rule, so you can thank EU for this

I got charged £25.00 on a loose figure!!

aussiejames wrote:

Why is this the seller's fault? It's your customs charges? If I shipped something to you I would have no idea what charges you would incur (let alone warn you about them) I've said it before- "I'm glad we don't have import tax here"

James is correct, this has nothing to do with the seller. You got your item, and are happy with it. The seller did not impose the custom charge, rather your country did. If you don't like the charges, then you either have to a. only buy from with in the U.K., or b. find sellers that will mark the declared values for less than they really are. However, if you find someone willing to go for option b. then I would only expect them to refund you for the declared amount. There's a bit of risk involved, so you have to decide if you are willing to take that or not.

Now I always ask the seller if they will mark the package as gift to avoid charges

Never realised these charges even existed. I've been buying stuff from eBay for about eight or nine years now and never come across this... Thing is I've looked at the guy's feedback and people have said the same things that they were charged extra when the parcels came into the country, though he still hasn't made any sort of disclaimer or note in the description nor on his page about these charges? Maybe it isn't the guy's fault but I don't know why I'm expected to just know this? I've been buying from the US for years, never has this happened.

Thanks for the tip on marking it as a gift and/or marking it as a lower value. I'll be sure to ask sellers this in the future. *Sigh* at least I know now.

When I lived in England I bought quite a lot of stuff from the states and never got hit with a charge however I remember other collectors being charged who lived in London (which was quite close to me..)

I *think* a few years ago it was rather random as not everyone in England was charged and those that were charged seemed to get the slips frequently.

Now however it seems they charge everywhere and on anything.

The guys on SWF worked out how to claim some back - it's a bit long winded and involves letters + calls but fuck paying £100 extra on some toys - where does that extra money go? Is there a tax on displaying 30 year old toys in the UK because they attract dust that is bad for our health? Jeez!

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8373 - useful info thread.

Joe_O wrote:

When I lived in England I bought quite a lot of stuff from the states and never got hit with a charge however I remember other collectors being charged who lived in London (which was quite close to me..)

I *think* a few years ago it was rather random as not everyone in England was charged and those that were charged seemed to get the slips frequently.

Now however it seems they charge everywhere and on anything.

The guys on SWF worked out how to claim some back - it's a bit long winded and involves letters + calls but fuck paying £100 extra on some toys - where does that extra money go? Is there a tax on displaying 30 year old toys in the UK because they attract dust that is bad for our health? Jeez!

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8373 - useful info thread.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it.

I want to apologize then, if you didn't know on the fees. I figure that most UK collectors know about them and usually do their best to try and avoid them.

However, I personally don't think it warrants bad feedback on the sellers part. How are they supposed to know all the fees for every country they ship to? and why should they be expected to pay them when you get hit with them? Quite a few U.S. sellers refuse to ship overseas as it is, because of the higher shipping costs for a trackable method that is required by ebay/paypal for seller protection. This would give them another reason not to and limit even further what is available on ebay.

Joe_O wrote:

When I lived in England I bought quite a lot of stuff from the states and never got hit with a charge however I remember other collectors being charged who lived in London (which was quite close to me..)

I *think* a few years ago it was rather random as not everyone in England was charged and those that were charged seemed to get the slips frequently.

Now however it seems they charge everywhere and on anything.

The guys on SWF worked out how to claim some back - it's a bit long winded and involves letters + calls but fuck paying £100 extra on some toys - where does that extra money go? Is there a tax on displaying 30 year old toys in the UK because they attract dust that is bad for our health? Jeez!

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8373 - useful info thread.

In Denmark you do not need to pay tax when the product is 100 years old. The tax office told me this was a EU rule so this rule exist in all EU countries. But if you live and buy star wars in a EU country. Then you will never need to pay any tax for vintage star wars toy.

So if you live in UK and buy in Spain, Germany, France etc. etc. then no Tax, if you live in UK and buy in USA, Australia, Japan etc. etc. then if the tax office finds your packet interesting then you need to pay tax for the star wars toy.

I was also shocked the first time I got a letter from the post office about tax before I could get my packet

The money goes to the government.

I get it I just think its retarded.

Joe_O wrote:

I get it I just think its retarded.

I think it is insane and unfair, I hate EU for this law

A dealer friend of mine regularly gets stung on customs charges on 'new' items entering the UK e.g. the latest Hasbro releases, which I can understand. But why should they apply to 'used' items?
I have also heard that requesting sellers to send items as a 'gift' can avoid additional customs charges, but I have never put this to the test.

Edited my original post, thanks for the help guys. Maybe it's HMRC and the government's over the top taxes I should be directing my anger at.

aussiejames wrote:

I've said it before- "I'm glad we don't have import tax here"

Try bringing in anything over $1000 AJ. Then it kicks in & "we" have some of the heaviest taxes known to man!

Tank1252 wrote:

aussiejames wrote:

I've said it before- "I'm glad we don't have import tax here"

Try bringing in anything over $1000 AJ. Then it kicks in & "we" have some of the heaviest taxes known to man!

If I imported anything worth over $1000 my wife would damage me far more than any tax man could

Lol, i sorta guessed it wouldn't be applicable to you AJ, but it does kick in @ 15% plus costs.

The really worst thing is that taxes have been payed over these items at least once already. In the Netherlands it's even worse. The low limit is 22 euros (excluding shipping costs), gift limit is 44 euros (excluding shipping costs). And guess what ? If you exceed the limits you must pay tax over the declared package value INCLUDING shipping costs! This is double theft again since over the shipping costs taxes were payed by the sender already. That's why I am really carefull the shipper declares the correct value and they did not shaft me on shipping as I get screwed double (ehm, triple?) on this

And even when I make sellers declare the actual selling value it goes wrong. I mean, you can underdeclare a DT luke or an original Vlix (customs will beleive that sold for 5$) but I have had a customs dispute because they did not beleive I payed 25$ for 8 POTF2 figures in package! I mean, it's in package so it must be worth a lot right!

And I won't even start on the fact there have been cases when customs ripped figures out of packaging to have them tested for authenticity or when customs reported people who unknowingly bought reproduction crap and reported the recipients to manufacturers (like Disney) who in their turn fined them thousands of dollars for copyright enfringements....

Specific laws should be implemented for trading second-hand items, but governments don't care, it just puts money in the till. I even tried to protest once. The answer was : We cannot do any say on tax related items, you need to take that up with your political party's representatives. Yeah, that will happen ....

Sure I had already posted this yesterday but I guess I forgot to hit send, here is a thread I posted elsewhere as I keep getting shafted on import tax, should help guys

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10123

cantina_patron wrote:

A dealer friend of mine regularly gets stung on customs charges on 'new' items entering the UK e.g. the latest Hasbro releases, which I can understand. But why should they apply to 'used' items?
I have also heard that requesting sellers to send items as a 'gift' can avoid additional customs charges, but I have never put this to the test.

It works if you get the seller to write gift. But there is also a limit to how much value the gift may have before that gift also will be hit by a tax. Some times they take the gift packet and ask you to prove it is a gift and they want it confirmed from seller. There is also a gift rule about the gift can't be mailed from a company address, only from a privat address and also need to get it delivered to a private adress. Gifts can't be send to a company adress without tax.

This are the law here in Denmark and the tax office told me it was the same law in all the EU countries because it was a EU law.

I hate this law.

'okcomputer1138' just randomly emailed me calling me an idiot because of the feedback I left on the other guy's page, regardless to the fact that eBay closed my case and denied my appeal. Seems like this nut has nothing else better to do than look through peoples feedback and target strangers on the internet.

The insolence is strong in this one.